Is that your Idea?

pilot stepped back into the room and said, are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said, is that your idea? Or did somebody tell you to say that? Say one thing, do another. I just want you to know, for the past six months, Pat has been secretly videotaping you in worship. And after the service, if you're the deacons, we're going to pull some of you aside so we can show you what we found. We've got some experts here this morning who are going to analyze your facial expressions and actions to determine your motives in worship. How does that sound? Does that scare you? Why would it? Because sometimes we say one thing and we do another. Now, I don't know if that thought scares you, but it definitely scares me. It's ridiculous and just so you know, we would never do that. I think it might be illegal. But regardless, when I was back in Chattanooga, I was on camera sometimes for worship. And I know I certainly wouldn't want my facial expressions in worship scrutinized. Why not? Because sometimes even when you're leading in worship, you say one thing, you do another. Let's do a little exercise this morning. Pull out your bulletin and look at the front cover. Look at the bottom and just read the vision of faith, Presbyterian church. Let me ask a couple of questions. Are you having an impact for the kingdom? Are you actively engaged in worshiping Jesus? I mean, does it permeate all aspects of your life so that sometimes it just shows up unexpectedly in the middle of your week? In other words, how are you doing with the vision? Now, I'm not asking you corporately as a church. I'm not even asking the leadership. I'm asking you individually, how you doing with that? Personally, some of you are thinking, Russ, I didn't write this. You're new here. Maybe you don't know that. Well, I didn't either. But is it what Jesus is calling us to do? And if so, isn't it about us, or better yet, or we about it, or do we just say one thing and do another? Why do we say one thing and do another? I think it's because it's not my main goal. Oh, sure, it's in there somewhere. I've got it in the glove box just in case I get pulled over by the worship police when I'm leaving the service. License of registration, please. I got my Jesus card. I'm a good citizen, but let's be honest. I mean, everybody speaks. Everybody does. Come on, it's just a suggestion. They're not going to pull you over unless you're going at least 10 over, really speeding, bad speeders. That's who the worship police are for. Some of you aren't scared by the idea of the worship police because you are confident that your actions prove that you have true faith. And if that's you this morning, you're probably already thinking, you know what? I think I'd really like to see the video of all so-and-so. That guy, maybe he's always on his phone, surfing the web, and texting during the service. I wish Old Joe were here. He really needs to hear this one and straighten him out. If that's you this morning, if you're catching yourself thinking that, I want you to hear the words. Of Hall of Fame coach, John Wooden, who summed up his entire philosophy of coaching in one sentence. He won 10 national titles with this. When you're through learning, you're through. When you're through learning, you are through. So let me ask you, are we through with Jesus? Are we done here? I don't know about you. I'm ready to ask for some help. Let's pray. Lord, we are getting ready to dig into your word. And we are sheep. And sheep are stupid. We'll miss this if it's left up to us, Lord. Help us get it. Start with this preacher, Lord. Show us your face that we would leave here changed by your love and your name we pray. Amen. We're looking at John 18. That's page 1682 in your Pew Bible. While you're turning there, let me set the scene for you. Jesus has been arrested. Judas led officials of the chief priest and an attachment of Roman soldiers to find him. That lets us know all of this was pre-arranged. The Sanhedrin had worked with the Romans on this. And they've already checked with Pilate. This execution was going to happen quickly and quietly in the middle of the night, so there's no chance of a revolt. And as we saw last week, despite Peter's best efforts to the contrary, that's pretty much how things go down until Pilate changes his mind. He decides to give Jesus a fair trial. Well, at least a hearing. He says, what charges are you bringing? Charges? Well, we wouldn't be bringing him if he wasn't a criminal. They didn't have charges ready. They didn't think they'd need them. It was already set up. But it didn't take long. We know from Luke, for them to get their act together and charge him with leading an insurrection, leading a revolt, claiming to be king. And that's where we pick up. John 18, beginning at verse 33. Let's hear from God. Pilate then went back inside the palace. Some in Jesus and asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Is that your own idea? Jesus asked, or did others talk to you about me? Or to paraphrase it from the Greek? Is that from you, yourself, or from someone else? This has got to work. This question jumped out at me a few years ago for the first time. It's funny how I'd missed it before. But there it is from a lips of Jesus. Is that your idea? Or did you get it from somebody else? Now most commentators run right past this question and just see it as simply a line of defensive remarks Jesus is using to show Pilate he's not a political threat. But I think that's missing the main point. And sure, Jesus is masterfully clarifying a situation of Pilate, but there's something more here. Let's unpack that something more. First of all, from the mouth of Pilate comes the ultimate truth. Jesus is the king of the Jews. Pilate asks the right question. He just doesn't really believe it. He never found yourself, and Pat called this out this morning. And he never found yourself finishing a hymn when you realize you're just thinking about how you sound. If the person next to you were to suddenly lean over and ask, you wouldn't be able to say one phrase from the song you just say, bingo. How about the doxology? You ever think about the doxology while you sing it? About the meaning of the words. I'll never forget my home church in South Carolina changed the melody they were using for the doxology when I was growing up. You would have thought people responded as though a cross had been burnt in the pulpit. They thought it was about the melody. And our pastor just wanted them to have to think about the words. Is the problem really the melody? Or to put it a little differently? Are bullets and errors really what's keeping you from seeing Jesus' face? See, we say one thing, and we mean another. All right, secondly, he's not just the king of the Jews. He's the king of all kings. In other words, pilot, no. He's not just a threat to your little province of the Roman Empire. He's a threat to everything you think you know. He's not just a king among other kings. He's the king who made all of this. I think with me, pilot can't fathom what we now know. The vast Roman Empire that encompassed his entire world, his existence, we now know is just a small section of this floating chunk of rock we call a planet. And our planet is just a speck in the middle of an expansive solar system. And our solar system is just a speck. In the middle of a galaxy, 100,000 light years across. That's 1,000 lifetimes all traveled at the speed of light. There's no way for me to get my head around the concept of that huge, to even begin to think about what kind of distance that is. But I know this. Our galaxy is just a speck in the known universe. And that's just what we can see with our current technology. If there's anything we know, it's this place is huge. There's a reason we call it space. And if there's one thing we know about ourselves, we're tiny. And here in this passage, it's the one who made it all. Pilot is sitting in the room with the living God. And he has no idea. What are we doing this morning? If Caesar himself had walked into the room, imagine how differently pilot would have responded. I mean, here he sits, malding the truth, not really believing it, just looking to use it for his own purposes. Missing the fact that the center of life, the center of existence, the reason he got out of bed that morning, ate his breakfast, does his job at all. The reason he lives period is sitting in the room with him. And he's got no clue. He says the right thing. He just has no expectation. Welcome to nominal Christianity. Ben Hayden was the pastor of my old church for 32 years. He was an internationally known televangelist. Thousands upon thousands of people came to Christ through his television ministry. But when it came time for him to pass the baton to the next senior pastor in front of that entire congregation, he said, this is a church full of nominal Christians, nominal in name only. Just words, somebody else's idea. Not early on in my time in Chattanooga. I went to lunch with a young, single professional. And I asked him, what brings you to our church? I'll never forget him, look at me in the eye, and telling me, there's a lot of rich and powerful people at this church. And a lot of people come here to make business contacts. My boss encouraged me to worship here so I can network. Why? Because in the South sometimes Jesus can be good for business. Using Jesus to get something else, saying one thing, living for another. Now that is scary, honest, y'all. You don't really scares me about it. I get paid to talk Jesus for a living. Talk, just words. I got to take a hard look in the mirror. And you know what I find? Top three reasons. I got serious about church. My friends were there. It was a lot of fun. And there was that cute girl I liked. Jesus didn't make the main list. He's a nice side show, nominal attraction. I sang about the King of Kings three times a week. But it was mainly because of what he was doing for me. Saying one thing, living for another. You know what's so dangerous about this? I was at church. I thought I was one of the good people. Wouldn't I call this bad people out there who don't go to church? I was busy looking down my nose at them. But all I had done was put a Christian label on the same selfish desires. I had found socially acceptable ways to sin, Christian ways to be selfish. And then it hit me. You know the difference between me and those people, I was just better at hiding it. I was better at sending than they were. I was more nuanced. I was more sophisticated. It was more insidious. And you tell me, which is worse, the guy who does evil and admits it. The guy who does evil and calls it good. Saying one thing, living for another.

And you know the bad news, the problem with Christianity for a guy like me, is that there's no such thing as good people. Don't take it from me. You go home and read Romans 3, Ouch, all my best efforts. Just evil. That's bad news, y'all. Should we pray and go home depressed? Come on. Come on. I need some good news this morning. All right. What are we missing? Where's the good news? This is the point I think most people miss in this. Thirdly, while we're busy pursuing something else, what's Jesus doing? While Pilate is busy looking to use Jesus for his own agenda, what's Jesus up to? Jesus is actually pursuing Pilate. I mean, here Jesus is, whether man who, at least from a secular standpoint, holds his life in the balance. And how does this conversation go down? If you read the rest of the passage, sure, Jesus deals with the main political concern, no Pilates. I'm not a military threat, at least not how you're thinking about it. But if that's the only concern, why don't Jesus keep going? What's all this talk in verses 37 and 38 about truth? Why even bring that up? Unless Jesus is after something else, something more, and then it hits you, he's after Pilate. From the moment the conversation began, Jesus' agenda has been Pilate. I mean, here he is on the brink of being murdered and his concerns not for himself, it's for somebody else. Pilate, do you see me? Pilate, do you understand I'm your only hope? We're talking about Pontius Pilate. The Pontius Pilate. I mean, we vilify him as evil incarnate and Jesus' heart was broken for him. His heart is broken for a man who's going to have him murdered just to satisfy the whims of a few religious zealots in a backward, remote district of the Roman Empire. And never mind the fact that after a few moments with him, he knows Jesus to be an innocent man. Oh well, Jesus will die. It'll make Pilate's life easier. What do we do with that? He looks and says, this sacrifice is just for a little peace just for the day, just to make my life a little easier. Oh well, Jesus will die and it'll make me happy. So it's his life. Sinics, welcome to the party. If you're a cynical person, I really want you to hear this. If you're like me, this is good news. Look, is dirty and is calculated as my plans were and sometimes still are to use Jesus for my own agenda? His love is more resolute and more ingenious in his nonstop pursuit of me. Do you see this? He's coming after Sinics. He's coming after the dirtiest and nastiest at his own expense. There's no other love like this. Do you see how loved you are? But let's give Pilate some credit here. Fourthly, there's a reason Pilate doesn't take this guy seriously. I mean, look at him. He's battered and beaten. They bring him in. This guy's been roaming the countryside for years. He probably stinks. And if you read Isaiah carefully, he's probably ugly. So if he was ugly to start with, beaten and stinking certainly didn't help, and this guy claims to be a king, what kind of king looks like that? We're getting right down to it this morning. If we're going to make this application, I want you to think with me about this. Why is this picture so ridiculous? Maybe even a little bit disturbing. If this is what the king looks like, what must his kingdom look like? If this is what the king looks like, what must his kingdom look like? Or to put it a little bit more personally? If this is what the king looks like, what must his servants look like, having an impact for his kingdom? Back in 2004, an eight-year-old boy in Tampa was walking home from the Boys and Girls Club. And as he walked through this rough neighborhood along a major thoroughfare, two pit bulls and a rot-wiler come from the yard across the street and start to mull him. They easily overpower him. They certainly are going to kill him. And cars just keep passing by. Finally, a small 26-year-old woman with three kids stops. She gets out her pepper spray and covers the dogs in it. But when that isn't working, she jumps into the fray. She starts beating on the dogs with her fists. And what do you think happened next? The dogs turned on her. They started mulling her first her arms and then her face. But she got the boy out. They both went to the hospital, but both lived. And afterward, when they interviewed her, it came out that she was a dancer from down the street. We're not talking ballet. She was a bad person. So they asked her, why did you stop? And she said, all those people just kept driving by. So I had to stop. All those people, the good people, people who probably didn't even let their kids watch rated our movies. Much less went to the kind of places where she worked, all those good people driving by on the other side. Brothers and sisters, what have we missed? Why do we say one thing and do another? Do we really want to be changed? Until I realize there are no good people, there's no such thing. Until I realize I am sick, I'm not going to want what he wants. I mean, to willingly enter somebody else's suffering and sharing it, just to show them God's love. Where do you get that kind of idea from the king who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross? For the joy. You know what his joy is? Claiming bad people like you and me. Now that's a joy I want to know. He came to enter my own personal hell. Whether I admit that is what it is or not, he came to enter my hell and bring me up out of it. He took my hell and gave me his love. That was his idea. Let's ask him to make it ours. Let's pray. Lord God, don't let us leave this building with a resounding fizzle. We want to make an impact. Lord, don't let us just disperse. We need to see the king. We need to see your love, that it would melt hard, cynical hearts. So we are a broken people, and we need your healing hand. Melt us with your grace, and send us out with a joy that sets us on fire. To share with the world the best thing there is. Show us who you are, that we would want nothing less than to participate in what you're doing. And your name we pray. Amen. Take out your handles that we see are closing. Him in response, him number 231. Jesus shall reign. Let's stand and sing together. Jesus shall reign with us. That Jesus would love an idiot like me. That he would love like me, us, and enables us to love everybody else, and enables us to know the joy of existence. That God brings us into his family, and makes idiots royalty. Receive the benediction. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now, and forevermore. Amen.